As many of you are aware, yesterday we gave our 2008 Q1 investor relations call and during the Q&A session a question was asked to our CEO Shantanu Narayen about Flash and the iPhone.

The conference call has now been posted in its entirety on the Adobe investor relations site:

http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/invrelations/08q1analyst/earnings_confcall.html

Shantanu’s comments were in response to a question at about 7:04 in slide 20 (the Q&A portion of the call). Here's the transcript:

"Well, you know, we really believe that Flash is synonymous with the Internet and frankly anybody who wants to browse the Web and experience the Web in all its glory really needs Flash support. I mean, we were very excited about the announcement from Windows mobile adoption of Flash on their devices and the fact that we've shipped a half billion devices now, non-PC devices -- so we're also committed to bringing the Flash experience to the iPhone and we'll work with Apple. We've evaluated the SDK we can now start to develop the Flash Player ourselves. And, we think it benefits our joint customers so we want to work with Apple to bring that capability to the device."

Given the lively discussion around this statement over the past day there have been a lot of assumptions made that are not true and I thought I’d share some facts. Here’s the real info that you should be aware of about Flash on the iPhone:

1. We've played around with the iPhone SDK since it was introduced and think we can now begin development on delivering Flash Player on the iPhone.

2. More work needs to be done with Apple however, as the SDK and the license associated with it doesn't enable us to bring the full Flash experience on the iPhone's Safari web brower.

3. We know lots of iPhone users are wanting Flash. Adobe's goal is to make Flash as ubiquitous as possible, so that means delivering Flash to as many platforms as we can. Much to everyone's surprise we announced on Monday that Flash was coming to the Windows Mobile Platform. So if we can do it with Microsoft, we're certainly hoping that it's not that complex for Flash to make it to the iPhone.

This is what I can say today and I’m sure you have questions around what version of Flash, when it will be available, how consumers will get it, etc… We don’t have answers for these or other questions but be assured that once we do we’ll share more details. As always post any comments and I’ll answer.

Since the iPhone went on sale yesterday evening in the US, there have been several posts about the status of Flash support for the iPhone. I wanted to have this specific post to discuss the lack of Flash support for the iPhone and to provide some real world examples.

The purpose of these examples is to give you a sense of what consumers will see when viewing web pages that have Flash content. Note: all tests were done using a WiFi connection at my house.

HTML with Flash embedded (with non-Flash redirect)

The iPhone does not support Adobe Flash via the Safari web browser (www.nike.com as an example). Nike.com detects that the browser requesting the page doesn't have the Flash Player installed and provides an alternative page for the user to download the Adobe Flash 8 Player or to browse their non-Flash site.


Clicking on the non-Flash site links brings up the HTML only site (shown above).

HTML with Flash embedded (with no redirect)

If a site has no redirect or Flash Player detection (when SWF content is embedded into an HTML page) and you try to view it, you will see a place holder area where the SWF content should be rendered (www.nin.com as an example). There is no way to select or click on the missing plug-in icon.

HTML with QuickTime embedded

If you try to use QuickTime as a way to view SWF content (creating SWF content inside a .MOV file) it won't work either (www.igiki.com as an example). The yellow text on the left stays there and doesn't do anything - nothing loads. There was talk about this in several other sites about this being a possible work around but it's not.

Flex app
How about a Flex app? Flex apps are awesome on the web and I wanted to see what would happen if I tried to view one on my iPhone. I went to the Flex.org Flex Showcase page and tried one of the examples (www.amgentourofcalifornia.com).


The home page loaded just fine so I clicked on the Adobe Tour Tracker link on the upper right side of the page.


This is what I get (above).

Trying to download the Adobe Flash Player
Let's say I go to the Adobe site to try and download the Flash player plug-in for web browsers, in my case for Safari on my iPhone.


Here I am at the main Adobe page (www.adobe.com) and you can see that the top banner area on the page that's usually animated (via Flash) is instead a static bitmap image. So I click on the "Get Adobe Flash Player" icon in the upper left side of the main page.


This brings me to the Adobe Flash Player download page. Notice that it knows I'm coming from an Apple based browser (Safari) so it offers me one of two options for downloading the Flash Player: one for Intel-based and another for PowerPC-based computers.


If I click on either one of the download buttons I get the following message from Safari. So there's no way to install the Adobe Flash Player via the Safari browser on the iPhone.

HTML with no Flash content

Now if your site doesn't have any Flash content in in then it will render just fine (www.flashdevices.net as an example).

What can you do
So what can you do as a web, Flash and/or Flex developer? We suggest that developers speak to Apple directly about what technologies the iPhone will support and integrate. It's important to note that our relationship with Apple continues to be strong. Naturally we believe that support for Flash is essential for any mobile device that wants to deliver a great experience for customers. If you think it's important for the iPhone to support the rendering of Flash content then let Apple know.

If you'd like me to test your site on my iPhone let me know - leave a comment with your site name, email address and I'll see what I can do.

After 12 hours of waiting in line at the Apple store in downtown San Francisco yesterday (I was number 88), I'm now the proud owner of my own iPhone. Currently I'm getting familiar with it, loading my music and photos, testing the different applications and will have a longer post on Monday.

First question you may have - does it support Adobe Flash? The answer is no. If you go to a web site that has Flash content (SWF/FLV) then it won't display in the Safari browser on the iPhone. I suggest that developers speak to Apple directly about what technologies the iPhone will support and integrate.

Second question you may have - how does it compare to the Nokia N95, LG Prada and other mobile devices. Well I'm doing some side by side comparisons and will share my personal thoughts next week.

Overall - it's amazing. If you don't have one I encourage you to go to an Apple or AT&T store to check it out. The phone UI and experience is so good. You can also check out the Apple iPhone site, Gizmodo and Engadget for more coverage of the iPhone. Also take a look at the PC World iPhone stress test video. OK, back to testing.